"Pilot project to reduce unemployment launched"

A new pilot project to help reduce unemployment and facilitate the relaxation of the rules of origin agreement was launched on Wednesday in cooperation between the government and international stakeholders. The Ministry of Labour, the EU and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) signed the agreement on Wednesday, under which Jordanians and Syrians alike will be put in contact with employers, raising their chances to find decent work opportunities. Under the one-million-euro project, the ILO will facilitate the implementation of the Jordan-EU agreement on simplified rules of origin, which seeks to help Jordan access the EU market. The relaxed rules will be applied once 200,000 jobs for Syrian refugees are created and when those Syrians are issued work permits, according to the agreement. For Jordanian industries to be able to benefit from the EU simplified rules of origin, each factory needs to have Syrian employees constituting no less than 15 per cent of its manpower. The rate will be increased to 25 per cent in the third year of the agreement. According to organisers, the ILO will extend the core services of one of its programmes — Better Work Jordan — to further manufacturing sectors, to help Jordanian companies abide by the country’s labour law and meet international labour standards. The pilot project also seeks to support the implementation of the EU-Jordan Compact, which includes assisting Jordanian companies to take advantage of trade opportunities provided by the new trade facilitation, leading to job creation for both Jordanian and Syrian refugees...